Thoughts Over The Morning’s Fourth Cup of Coffee: HIV Discount Rates

The issue has been raised about “pooling tests”. Cutting Edge in response to an article Dr. Slim Pickens wrote says it doesn’t pool your blood in HIV testing. But how could they not. If you do a little reading on the type of “super” test PASS claims talent is given [The Aptima HIV-1 Test], the standard cost is around $540.

For talent to get a $140 rate, pooling would have to be the norm in order to get a group discount. And upon further reading it’s common to find more errors when blood samples are pooled. So one of two things is at play. Either you’re getting a cheaper test and less effective than the one being advertised or your blood is being pooled. Which is it?